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Speaking of Trauma: the Race Talk, the Gun Violence Talk, and the Racialization of Gun Trauma

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Speaking of Trauma: the Race Talk, the Gun Violence Talk, and the Racialization of Gun Trauma ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0320-z OPEN Speaking of trauma: the race talk, the gun violence talk, and the racialization of gun trauma Madison Armstrong1 & Jennifer Carlson1* ABSTRACT This paper considers the intersection of race and gun violence through the lens of trauma. We focus on two high-profile cases of gun violence: the state-deemed justifiable homicide of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012 and the active shooting 1234567890():,; that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. These cases illustrate not just how people in the US experience gun violence in racially divergent ways (as existing literature suggests) but also how people—particularly parents—manage the anticipation of gun violence and its trauma. To this end, we develop the concept of “anticipatory trauma” and illustrate it by analyzing a set of social practices that have emerged surrounding gun violence: parents’ conversations with their children aimed at explaining and addressing their children’s unique risk of gun violence. Building on existing literature on “the Talk” among African American parents, we analyze a racial bifurcation in how parents talk about gun violence. Specifically, we detail “the Race Talk” (in relation to the Trayvon Martin case) and “the Gun Violence Talk” (in relation to the Parkland case), which differentially construct children’s vulnerability, the social phenomena that render them vul- nerable, and the appropriate solutions for addressing that vulnerability. Without under- standing anticipatory trauma as a racialized phenomenon, we risk leveling the gun violence debate—and creating gun policy that is neither politically meaningful nor practically effective for addressing the broad but complex issue of gun violence. 1 School of Sociology, University of Arizona, Social Sciences Building, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. *email: [email protected] PALGRAVE COMMUNICATIONS | (2019) 5:112 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0320-z | www.nature.com/palcomms 1 ARTICLE PALGRAVE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0320-z Introduction n February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin wanted amid the threat of gun violence. This may mean choosing housing Oto get an Arizona Iced Tea for himself and Skittles for his on the basis of school and neighborhood safety, setting ground soon-to-be younger step-brother. It was dark and rainy, rules for kids’ playdates and extracurricular activities, and even but he made the trek through the Sanford, Florida, gated com- engaging in security consumption, such as buying bulletproof munity known as The Retreat on Twin Lakes. As he made his way backpacks. It also means engaging in particular practices of back from 7–11 after purchasing the items, he dialed his friend talking to kids about gun violence. Indeed, news coverage in the Rachel Jeantel, who was the last person to talk to Martin before he aftermath of gun violence tragedies suggests that while school died. Martin, trying to avoid the rain, noticed someone following shootings and justifiable homicides have incited parents across him: George Zimmerman, self-appointed neighborhood watch racial and socioeconomic divides to talk to their kids about gun captain. From Zimmerman’s perspective, Martin was an unrec- violence, these brands of gun violence have elicited fundamentally ognized black male in a hoodie—suspect, especially amid a recent different strategies among parents as they aim to protect children spate of break-ins in the neighborhood. Despite being advised by physically and emotionally from the anticipated threat of gun police to back off, Zimmerman, complaining to police that “these violence. assholes, they always get away,” decided to follow Martin. Jeantel This paper considers gun violence through the lens of trauma. advised Martin to run; Martin intimated that he was sick of To unravel the trauma that gun violence incites, we focus on two running. Jeantel could hear the sounds of a confrontation, but the high-profile cases of gun violence with markedly different racial phone cut out before Zimmerman shot a bullet into Martin’s dynamics: the state-deemed justifiable homicide of Trayvon chest, killing him. Police questioned Zimmerman, but ultimately Martin on February 26, 2012 and the active shooting that released him; given the state’s Stand Your Ground law, Floridians’ occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb- generally sympathetic stance on the defensive use of force, and ruary 14, 2018. These cases illustrate a number of broader points the fact that Zimmerman was the only witness left to narrate what that scholars have made about trauma, namely, that (1) trauma happened, police found themselves reticent to arrest—so they let is a long-term, dynamic process; (2) trauma is inflected by lines him go. Within about two weeks, the case sparked protests in of difference and inequality, including race, gender, and class; Florida and across the nation. Only after tremendous public and (3) trauma operates as a micro-level, meso-level, and pressure did a special prosecutor notorious for putting African macro-level phenomenon that extends far beyond the immedi- Americans behind bars decide to charge Zimmerman; nearly a ate victims of a traumatic event. We build on this literature to year and a half later, on July 13, 2013, Zimmerman was found further detail the consequences of trauma—not just for under- “not guilty” of all charges by an all-female jury. standing how people in the US experience gun violence in On the afternoon of February 14, 2018, shortly before school racially divergent ways but also how people—particularly par- let out for the day, expelled student Nikolas Cruz entered ents—in the US manage the anticipation of gun violence. To this Building 12 of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in end, we develop the concept of “anticipatory trauma” and Parkland, Florida, carrying a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. Cruz illustrate it by analyzing a set of social practices that have began firing the gun; its smoke set off the fire alarm, sending emerged surrounding gun violence: parents’ conversations with confused students and faculty into the hallways. Cruz fired into their children aimed at explaining and addressing their chil- multiple classrooms as students and staff, realizing what was dren’s unique risk of gun violence. We then turn to the coverage happening, desperately tried to take shelter or escape the campus. of the Trayvon Martin and Parkland cases to unpack how par- Within the span of 6 min, Cruz killed seventeen people and ents’ gun violence talk is mobilized across different kinds of gun injured another seventeen in and around the high school. He violence. Rather than an empirically exhaustive account, we take abandoned his weapon and escaped the building by blending in a theoretically motivated reading of mainstream news outlets’ with students fleeing the gunfire. Cruz then visited a nearby coverage of these parental talks in order to develop a set of Walmart, purchased a drink from a Subway, and briefly entered a claims regarding anticipatory trauma, gun violence, and race. McDonalds before being apprehended by police while walking Specifically, we analyzed op-ed pieces from national and local through a neighborhood over an hour after the shootings. Cruz news sources that referenced either the Trayvon Martin case or confessed to the shootings and was ultimately charged with the Parkland case directly and discussed speaking to children seventeen counts of premeditated murder in the first degree and about either event or gun violence more generally. News sources seventeen counts of attempted murder in the first degree; as of the examined included The Washington Post, The New York Times, writing of this article, the case has yet to go to trial. Although The Atlantic, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, USA Today, Today, scholarship shows that the majority of mass murders are carried The Huffington Post, NPR, The Baltimore Sun, The South Florida out by young, middle-class white men (Fox and Levin, 1998; Sun Sentinel,andMy San Antonio. All articles were published Madfis, 2014), the attack came as a shock to the affluent, pre- between the date of the event which they referenced (the dominately white Parkland community, destabilizing the com- shooting of Martin on February 26, 2012 and the Parkland munity’s sense of safety. Within one day of the Parkland shootings on February 14, 2018) and March 2019. Op-ed topics shootings, members of the community, including those who were were sorted into themes pertaining to perceptions of danger, not affiliated with the high school, began protesting in favor of precautions taken against violence, perception of authority, gun violence prevention. maintenance of emotions, and institutional support (or lack In the US, nearly 40,000 people die of gunshot wounds thereof). Often resembling “how to” guides for worried parents, annually; nearly 100,000 are wounded every year. These figures these news articles can be understood as theoretically generative are overwhelming, but still they greatly underestimate who is social texts that “bear witness” to social injury (Eyerman, 2019) impacted by gun violence, how, and with what consequences. and, as such, provide a window into cultural trauma sur- Extrapolating from these figures suggests that hundreds of rounding gun violence. thousands of friends and family experience trauma as they cope We find that parents’ talk about gun violence entrenches racial with casualties
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